Casiño seeks probe into ‘fake claims’ of power firm’s losses in Mindanao

Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño . INQUIRER photo

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño  said Thursday he will ask the House next week to initiate an inquiry on what he said were “fake claims” of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) that it suffered up to P15 billion in losses from the operation of the Mindanao hydropower plants.

Casiño made the disclosure in the wake of a statement by Luwalhati Antonino of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) that the Agus plant in Lanao and the Pulangi facility in Bukidnon were actually making money as shown by financial documents from PSALM and the National Power Corp., or Napocor.

Antonino claimed that from 2001 to 2011, the hydropower plants made an average profit of P6 billion a year.

She said the alleged losses were caused by having the hydropower facilities defray the expenses of other losing power facilities operated by Napocor.

In describing the losses as  “fake,” Casiño said that even if  income from the Agus-Pulangi operations was  being used to cover the losses of Napocor’s other plants, the balance would still be positive.

“Data provided to us by Napocor insiders show a P1.9 billion net income in 2011 despite the spike in diesel prices. So I really can’t see how Napocor lost P15 billion, unless the figures have been manipulated to show a loss, and this supposed loss is within the time frame of 2001-2011,” Casiño said.

He said he suspected that the figures were being manipulated to support the sale of Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants to private investors. PSALM is strongly pushing for the privatization of the two facilities.

Citing figures from Napocor’s Mindanao operations, Casiño said Napocor posted a total profit of P73.2 billion from 2003 to 2011.

“This was presented in the recent Mindanao Power Summit and the figures were never belied by Napocor,” he said. “Somebody might have wanted to make money out of this issue. I will have this investigated by Congress.”